ABSTRACT
In the introductory chapter we noted that there had been an increased interest in the inclusion of an international system as a variable in the work of recent historical sociologists. Chapter 2 examined how the work of writers such as Skocpol, Tilly, Mann and Wallerstein fits into a long tradition of theorising about World History and the Philosophy of History. The key point that distinguishes their work from previous writers is that they conceive of the state as an actor within an international system. In the following four chapters we will consider their work, with particular reference to their approaches to the state and the international system. In this chapter we will examine the ways in which the concept of an international system has been utilised in International Relations. In particular we will examine Waltz’s Neorealism and highlight the lack of a theory of the state as a particular weakness. In the final chapter we will examine whether the possibility exists of combining Historical Sociology and Neorealism to provide the latter with a theory of the state. We will also discuss whether International Relations theorists have anything to learn from the approach to the theorising of international systems in Historical Sociology.
